Jaworski detected lack of effort from Randy Moss

Eric McHugh

Thursday

Nov 29, 2007 at 12:01 AMNov 29, 2007 at 5:38 AM

FOXBORO – T.O. is en fuego. With four 100-yard receiving games in his last five and 10 touchdowns in his last six outings, Dallas Cowboys receiver Terrell Owens has almost caught Randy Moss in catches (Moss leads, 71-64), yards (Moss leads, 1,095 to 1,093) and TDs (Moss again, 16-13).

One observer, though, thinks Owens just passed Moss in one crucial area: work ethic.

This was a time-honored knock against the pre-Patriots Moss – that he didn’t work hard enough when the ball wasn’t headed in his direction. Critics of the Patriots star have been invisible this season as Moss has gotten off to an incredible start, but ESPN analyst Ron Jaworski thinks the Bad Old Randy made a comeback in Sunday night’s 31-28 win over the Eagles.

On a conference call promoting ESPN’s coverage of Monday night’s Patriots-Ravens game, the man dubbed “Jaws” took a bite out of Moss, saying he looked sluggish at times against Philly. Moss was shut out in the second half and finished with modest numbers (5-43), although he narrowly missed hauling in a deep ball against double coverage and had a 4-yard TD catch nullified by his own pass interference penalty.

“Quite honestly, when I went through the tape, it was the first time that I personally was disappointed in a Randy Moss performance,” Jaworski said. “I did not see the same energy on every single play that I had seen so far this season. When he was the No. 1 go-to guy on a route, he gave a great effort and hustled. There were some plays when he was back side or not the primary receiver that I did not see the great effort.

“Knowing how the Patriots handle things internally, I’m sure there will be some discussions on Randy (in which the coaches remind him) ‘Every snap, we need 100 percent out of you.’ I thought a few times Tom (Brady) tried to get him involved in the game and tried to force some balls in to him.”

Of course, Moss has been held in check before and bounced back with big games. He was quiet against the Redskins (3-47) and then savaged the Colts (9-145) the next week. Still, Jaworski said Moss’ showing against the Eagles would tip the scales in Owens’ favor if he had to pick one of the superstars to be on his team right now.

“Before Sunday night’s game I would have taken Randy Moss. I just did not like some of the things I saw (against the Eagles) – the lack of a consistent effort. I never question the effort of T.O. If you made me pick one of the two, I would probably go with T.O.”

Other thoughts from Jaworski, a former Eagles QB whose TV trademark is his exhaustive film study:

He called talk of the Eagles’ designing a defensive “blueprint” to beat the Patriots “somewhat comical,” pointing to the Patriots’ offensive stats – 410 yards of offense, 380 passing yards from Brady and 72 plays crammed into the first eight drives. The Patriots had six possessions of nine or more plays. Jaworski did, however, give Philly high marks for its aggressive game plan, which he said is essential in trying to match points with the Patriots, who boast “the best offense I have ever seen.”

He said the Patriots’ linebackers can be a weak link in pass coverage. “They are very stout against the run,” he said. “ But if you can get some isolation routes on them in pass coverage, I think you can take advantage of it. And if the quarterback reads that coverage quickly, (which is not easy) because they do a great job of disguising what they want to do, you have the opportunity for some big plays.”

He repeated the popular criticism of running back Laurence Maroney’s running style – that it is geared toward looking for the proverbial home run. “I like guys that are bounce runners who do look for that big play,” Jaworski said, “but you have to have an intuition that if nothing is there, lower your head down. Sometimes a good play is getting 2 or 3 yards.” Jaworski said the more-downhill style of Sammy Morris, who is done for the season, was a better fit for the Patriots.

He said the Ravens’ 13th-ranked pass rush has been hurt by ineffective blitzes. Jaworski said Baltimore has called the second most blitzes in the league, but opposing QBs have a 98.2 passer rating in those situations, ranking the Ravens 30th out of 32 teams in that category. He said inconsistent secondary play has been to blame.

He’s looking forward to Dolphins coach Don Shula’s planned visit to the ESPN booth during Monday night’s game. Shula, the coach of the 17-0 Dolphins of 1972, recently said the Patriots’ accomplishments might merit an asterisk in the wake of the videotaping scandal. “The one thing we know about Coach Shula is that he will not hold anything back,” said Jaworski, who played briefly for Shula in Miami in 1988. “However he feels, he won’t sugar-coat it.”

Eric McHugh may be reached at emchugh@ledger.com.

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